Mark Torpey is the sports editor of The Enterprise and The Patriot Ledger, and this is our all-sports blog. Use it as a jumping off point for our sport-specific blogs on Boston pro teams, or stay right here and talk about high school and college
...

Mark Torpey is the sports editor of The Enterprise and The Patriot Ledger, and this is our all-sports blog. Use it as a jumping off point for our sport-specific blogs on Boston pro teams, or stay right here and talk about high school and college sports and other topics.

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Aug. 27, 2013
12:01 a.m.

If you’re of a certain age and can recall the outlandish excellence that was the television version of “The A-Team” you can still recollect George Peppard’s famous line before you read it – “I love it when a plan comes together.”

As his club played in the world capital of the entertainment industry, one can only imagine that Ben Cherington might have channeled his inner Hannibal Smith and lit a cigar and muttered that line a time or two, especially after Jake Peavy, this season’s trade deadline acquisition, finished off the Dodgers with a complete game victory with offensive assists from Xander Bogaerts, Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Shane Victorino, and Mike Napoli last night.

So as Boston departs from the West Coast for the last time during the 2013 regular season, winning two of three against the Dodgers has to be satisfying for everyone involved with the Sox. After losing Friday night (another impressive start by hard-luck John Lackey), the Sox were able to rebound behind Lester and Peavy and in the process they not only shattered Carl Crawford’s bitter dreams of a L.A. sweep, Boston regained sole possession of first place in the A.L. East and ended the Dodger’s run of 18 consecutive series wins.

Granted, Boston did not face either Clayton Kershaw or Zach Greinke, but they beat the pitchers in front of them in convincing fashion. Additionally, after being shut-out on Friday night, they showed signs of having guys wake up from a recent batting slumber – especially Napoli.

For Cherington, even as his team needed the last two victories to go a less than stellar 9 – 10 on their recent roadtrips, his plans have to be materializing right before his eyes: Clay Buchholz feels healthy after his first rehab start (Roy Halladay has returned to pitching in the majors after shoulder surgery faster than Clay – who merely slept on his arm the wrong way), Xander Bogaerts came off the bench for an offensive spark, Stephen Drew has been more and more productive, Will Middlebrooks has come back from the minors with a vengeance, Mike Napoli looked like he is capable of being a force again, and the club got David Ortiz (who has been slogging through the last few weeks of August) some time off heading into the upcoming nine-game homestand. All of those positives don’t even include the starters (other than Ryan Dempster) pitching well at the same time and the bullpen continuing its season-long consistency.

Since the All Star break, the Bosox have really been treading water. Now, after gaining confidence from cooling off the hottest team in baseball the Red Sox may be getting in position to make a run that allows them to pull-away from the rest of the division.

With exactly 30-games left on the schedule this version of the Red Sox are looking more and more like a certain black van-driving Hollywood clique of yesteryear – renegades who have banded together to clear their names and do right by their supporters. Sure, there are explosions and thrown projectiles that don’t actually hurt anyone and some melodrama here and there – but there are also some smiles, some laughs, and some good times.